Dear Board Member:
I’m both proud and honored to inform you the Georgia Partnership has been offered admission to Achieve’s Coalition Support Network. Achieve is a Washington, DC-based independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit education reform organization dedicated to working with states to raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessment, and strengthen accountability.
This was not an easy process. Achieve selected a small group of organizations from several states to compete for the two-year, $200K grant. The application required detailed responses to several questions. Dana Rickman was once again our point person and put together an excellent package. As a result, we were invited to appear before a panel of Achieve representatives and other national funders in Washington to defend our positions and answer questions. They billed this meeting as a “Shark Tank” format. Dana appeared before this pressure-packed panel last week and from the feedback (and the results) we received, “wowed them.”
So what does this mean for us? In the next several days we will be sorting through the details and will look forward to sharing more with you at our next Board meeting June 9. But in a nutshell, we will join other states – we don’t know who they are yet – in promoting three complimentary goals:
This program will make us a player on the national education stage and at the same time will increase our capability as a Coalition member to impact the Georgia scene. Continuous improvement is always our goal and this will position us to make even greater contributions as we continue our mission of improving student achievement in our state.
Achieve’s public announcement will be made in mid-May so I ask you to keep this information close-hold until then. Thank you for your continuing leadership and support.
-Steve Dolinger
President
©2016 Georgia Partnership For Excellence In Education